The united
kingdom of Israel had been divided after Solomon died. Ten of the tribes of Israel abandoned
Rehaboam as the king and chose Jereboam to rule over them. There was constant warfare between the two
groups throughout their history. Asa had
been faithful to follow God while the king of the ten tribes, Baasha, had not. Baasha was building a city called Ramah to
keep King Asa from receiving supplies.
It posed a serious problem for Judah and needed to be resolved. Asa decided to rely upon the king of Syria,
Ben-hadad, to help him with the problem rather than ask God for help. He took silver and gold from the treasury of
the temple and his personal treasury to the king as a bribe and asked him to
break the agreement he had made with Baasha and go to battle for him. The king of Syria agreed to do it and Baasha
had to stop building the city that was a threat to King Asa. In the mind of Asa, he thought his problem
was solved. The city of Ramah was
pillaged and the building materials were used to fortify other cities. It all looked good to Asa but it was not how
God wanted him to respond and a prophet Hanani, was sent to Asa to relay God’s
message to him.
2Ch 16:7 At
that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him,
"Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD
your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.
2Ch
16:8 Were not
the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and
horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand.
2Ch 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run
to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose
heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on
you will have wars."
2Ch 16:10 Then
Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in
a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the
people at the same time.
2Ch
16:11 The acts
of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and
Israel.
2Ch
16:12 In the
thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease
became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought
help from physicians.
2Ch
16:13 And Asa
slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.
Asa’s Bad
Decision
God had
bigger plans for Asa and the nation of Judah.
He would have provided greater peace as Syria was an enemy who would
come against Judah in the future. God
wanted to deliver Syria into the hands of Asa.
The agreement Asa made with Syria was not in agreement with God’s
desires. Asa was looking for a short
term fix while God has a long term plan that would have been much better for
the nation. One has to wonder why Asa
made this decision, especially after the track record of God’s incredible
deliverance from the vast Ethiopian and Libyan armies. Asa had his own experience as well as the
experience of his father’s deliverance from their enemies to rely upon, yet he
chose to act on his own. Perhaps Asa was weary of facing another battle and
chose to let someone else fight for him.
Taking the precious metals from the temple was evidently a sufficient
bribe to change the heart of the king of Syria to break an agreement he had
with Baasha. You have to wonder how
faithful the king of Syria would be to Asa, if he was willing to break an
agreement for the payment of silver and gold.
In addition
by making the agreement with Ben-hadad, the nation of Israel suffered many
casualties when Syria fought against them.
When we make wrong decisions we can also affect the lives of many other
people. The loss of lives and bloodshed
of the people of the Northern Kingdom resulted from Asa’s wrong decision.
God’s
Disappointment
Hanani came
with the bad news of God’s disappointment with Asa’s actions. God was disappointed in Asa’s lack of faith
in his desire to intervene. God would
have helped Asa overcome his situation.
He was not unaware of what was happening and was giving Asa another
opportunity to allow him to show himself strong and defeat the enemies of Judah. God did not want Asa forming an alliance with
Ben-hadad because he knew what was going to happen in the future when Syria
would attack them. God was going to deal
with Syria to protect Judah but Asa blew it by forming the alliance. It seemed like an easy solution to Asa but it
would only create greater problems in the future. Because of his foolish decision the future
for Asa and Judah was not good, there would be turmoil instead of peace.
We all
struggle at times with making decisions on our own, failing to consult God,
making compromises that we should not make to be able to give us some relief
from an impending crisis. We rely on our
limited wisdom rather than God’s to make short term decisions that have long
term consequences. We look to others to
solve our problems and leave God out of the picture because we do not want to
seek him or we do not want to wait upon him and trust him to show up. Our impatience often drives us to make wrong
decisions that will lead to regret.
The Vega
Have you
ever bought something impulsively and then regretted it as it turned out to be
a money pit? I bought a car one time
that I did not take the time to really seek God about buying it and did not get
it checked out thoroughly. I needed a
car or at least I thought I did at the time and made a purchase too
quickly. I had to borrow the money to
buy it and then after a couple of weeks had to borrow more money to fix the
transmission that went bad. Soon
afterward it started burning oil and a black cloud spewed out from the
exhaust. It was a royal lemon that I
should have never bought. But my problem
goes beyond the purchase of the car as I was in a situation that I should not
have been in, in the first place. I had
been offered a job working with a company doing a wonderful thing, working with
children, developing Bible clubs. My
motivation in taking the job was more to allow me to be near a girl I had met
at my summer job working at a Bible camp than it was for the job itself. I was thinking of the future relationship
more than the job and made a decision to take the job rather than return to the
university to finish my degree. I was
not in the right place and it became evident that my plans were not going to
workout. After working for about 3
months, I finally came to my senses and realized I was in the wrong place. Had I truly sought God and been willing to
follow what he would have told me, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble
as well as finances. I learned some hard
lessons through the situation but most of all I realized how I relied on myself
and did not seek God or wait upon him for his plans. I had my mind made up as to what I wanted and
had I been really seeking God I know I would have made a different decision. Often we want God to give approval to our
plans more than we want to seek him to find out what is his plan. King Asa made the same mistake and he
suffered for it.
Asa’s Bad
Response
Not only did
Asa make a bad decision he also responded poorly after he was told that he
would have future trouble. He got mad at
God and took out his anger on Hanani as well as some of the people. His anger was displaced and he made others
suffer who really were not responsible for anything that had happened. We often respond in the same way when we are
confronted. We get mad at the person who
pointed out our error and we respond by being mean toward other people. Asa could have chosen to respond in a
different way, like asking for forgiveness and repenting from his lack of
consulting God, giving away treasures dedicated to the temple and making an
alliance with a king of whom he should not have been involved. Asa would not own up to his errors and chose
to respond in anger. God is merciful and
always ready to forgive when our hearts are humbled and we truly repent of our
sin. He wants to have a restored
relationship with us. He takes no
delight in seeing bad things happen to us because of our sin. Asa could have experienced restoration and
forgiveness but his pride and anger would not allow him to do it. He carried this anger until his death. Even when he had a problem with diseased feet
he refused to seek God for healing a condition that God could have easily
healed. It seems that Asa had a 5 year
long pity party. His pride got in the
way and he could not bring himself to the point of repentance. How foolish it is to hold a grudge against
God. What benefit was there in doing so
for Asa?
When we mess
up we need to fess up immediately. God
was not Asa’s problem, Asa was his own problem. He forgot his history of God’s
faithfulness to him and God’s desire to help him. God wanted to show himself strong but Asa did
not give him the opportunity. The word
“strong” means to “fasten upon”. The
image is that God is looking for someone whose heart is made ready for him, one
who is looking to him so he can fasten himself to him. It is almost like someone on a search and
rescue mission who is looking for someone in trouble who is reaching out for
help. When the rescuer sees him, he sets
his eyes upon him and reaches out to fasten himself to him to pull him out of
the problem. Asa had a problem but he
was not reaching out to God to invite his help.
Whatever
situation the enemy puts in our way or we create by our own error, we have to
remember that God is always for us. God
is there to rescue and help us get the victory but we must be willing to seek
him and invite him into our situation.
If we respond in our own wisdom or in the flesh we will only create a
worse situation with consequences that we will not want to face. God is ready, willing, and able to come to
our rescue. He wants us to call upon
him.
God will
rescue us
Psa_22:8 "He
trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"
Psa_91:15 When he
calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
Isa_31:5 Like
birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect
and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it."
Dan_3:29 Therefore
I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and
their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way."
2Ti_4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil
deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever
and ever. Amen.
2Pe_2:9 then the
Lord knows how to rescue
the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the
day of judgment,
Whatever
situation we face our first response must be to go to God and seek him for
help. We can approach him with confidence knowing that he is in control and he
is good. He will come to rescue us.
Teton Climbing Experience
After graduation
from high school, I went to Wyoming to climb the Gran Teton Mountain. It was my first mountain and I was excited to
be able to do it. I spend some time
learning how to rappel before the trip but that was it. We climbed the first
day and came to a patch of snow where we learned how to “glaciade” which
involves sliding down and then using a pick axe to stop. It was a lot of fun and not dangerous in the
situation we were at. We summited the
mountain the next day and began our descent.
Somehow I got separated from the group and I came upon a huge ice
field. I decided that I could save a lot
of time by sliding down the ice field to the path below. Not a good idea when you do not have a pick
axe to stop you. I decided that I could
straddle the side of the ice field and use my leg on the outside to act as a
brake so I could control my speed. It
sounded like a good plan to me but I quickly found out it would not work. I sat down and straddled the edge and began
sliding down. Within a few feet I veered
away from the edge and found myself sliding down the ice field headed toward
the bottom where huge rocks were waiting to receive me. I tried to dig my heels and hands into the
ice to slow but it was to no avail. I
continued to slide and picked up speed as I approached the bottom. I knew I was in deep trouble and I put my
legs in front of me and braced myself for the collision. As I got close to the bottom I remember
calling out to God, “God save me!!!” I slammed
into a rock that was probably 3-4 feet tall with my legs extended straight in
front. Somehow I hit the rock and was
catapulted in the air, doing a complete somersault over it and then landed in
an open area on my back. Fortunately, I had my backpack on and it absorbed all
the impact. My momentum rolled me
forward and I hit my knee on a rock and got a little cut. I stood up, shaking violently as I realized
what had just happened and how God had rescued me from being seriously injured. It was a very bad decision on my part to
slide down the ice field and had someone else been with me to advise me not to
do it or had I consulted God, I would have saved myself from the near death
experience. God showed up when I called
upon him and he rescued me. I knew that
he had something more for my life and that became a reality a couple of months
later.
Call, Trust,
Obey
We have to
call upon God but we also must trust him to move and we must be willing to obey
what he asks us to do. A story is told
of a man who fell off a cliff and on his way down he grabbed on to a small tree
growing out of the side. He was
suspended in the air and was calling out for help. God heard his call and responded by telling
the man, “This is God, let go of the branch”.
The man called out again for help and God replied with the same
answer. He called out a third time for
help and again God told him to let go of the branch. Finally in desperation the man called out,
“Is there anyone else who can help me!”
What the man did not know was that he was only a few feet above a shelf
that had he let go of the branch he would have safely landed on it. Often we do not see what God can see and we
have to trust him to know what we need to do and be willing to obey him whether
it seems logical or not.
Brooke
Donnelly shared her testimony on the 700 Club of God rescuing her from a life
of lesbianism. She had been abused
sexually as a child and had been raised in a Christian home. The abuse she suffered was not from her
family but from classmates and this caused great anger and rebellion to
dominate her life. She entered into a
lesbian relationship with a witch and moved to Hollywood seeking fame and
fortune.
One day,
Brooke was uncomfortable about going out to a particular nightclub with her
girlfriend.
“She said,
‘Well, let’s just sit on the fence about it.’ The only time I’d ever
heard ‘sit on the fence’ was in church. You don’t sit on the fence. You’re
either hot or you’re cold. But you’re not lukewarm. When those words came out
of her mouth, I just felt this quickening within me like all of a sudden it
felt like something entered the room. My heart started pounding. I said,
‘Do you feel that?’ And she’s like, ‘No, I don’t feel anything.’ I’m
like, ‘You don’t feel it?’ She’s like, ‘You don’t actually think there’s
such a thing as a devil, do you?’ At that point, I knew I could not trust
her anymore.”
Brooke
called out to Jesus, and her girlfriend jumped up and left.
"I was
like, ‘Okay God, okay, I don’t know what You want me to do, but I’m asking You
to help me.’ As soon as I prayed that, another presence came into my
apartment and this was just like this urgency like, ‘C’mon! C’mon! Let’s go!
Let’s go!’”
She left her
apartment and started walking. She says she felt like the Lord was
guiding her steps.
“I heard the
Lord. He said, ‘Brooke, fear not, for I am the Lord your God.’ He said.
‘Even though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you shall
not fear evil. For My rod and My staff, they will comfort you.’ There was
this breeze that passed by. I knew I was dealing with the Lord. Then I
heard in my heart, ‘Love is the most powerful source in the universe.’ I
just started crying, and I said, 'Okay, God, love is the most powerful source
in the universe. What about my lover?' And he said, ‘No!’ I just heard a
really loud ‘no’. When I heard that ‘no’, God opened my deceptive mind for a
moment in time to be able to have clear thinking and to make a choice. He
gave me a choice, ‘It’s either Me or her. Who’s it going to be?’”
She knew she
had to make a decision.
“I felt like
there was a man with a knife standing behind me. I was terrified. I tried
to reach behind me and see if someone was really standing behind me. Nobody was
standing behind me. I felt like I was going crazy. I knew I had to make
this choice. And when I chose Jesus, the presence behind me left.”
Brooke made
her choice, but now she had to take action.
“I came back
to my apartment, and my girlfriend was standing at our altar that we had. I
didn’t know what to do next. But when I saw her, I did not want her. God met me
right where I was. He helped me right in that decision. When I chose with all
of my heart to follow Jesus, God changed my heart. I was just broken. I had
nothing to show for 26 years of my life except a broken heart. I had
Jesus. I had made a decision for Jesus.”
Brooke moved
back to her parents’ house. She needed to heal.
“I didn’t
want to live. I laid on my bed waiting to die. I didn’t have my
right mind, I couldn’t think clearly.”
After six
months at home, Brooke went forward for prayer at a women’s Bible study.
“I felt like
the woman who reached out to grab Jesus’ garment, and I just felt like I was
grabbing it and saying, ‘I’m not letting go until You help me. You’ve gotta
help me!’ So I believe that Jesus delivered me that day from witchcraft or from
demonic spirit or whatever I had opened myself up to. It left.”
It has been
a long journey, but the pain Brooke held since childhood has been replaced by
the love of God.
“What the
Lord did was He took a broken heart and He put it back together with Himself
entwined now in my heart. He’s filled all those broken places inside of me with
Himself. I was able to emotionally heal. I was able to go through the
memories of what had taken place and face those memories with Jesus this time
forgive each one that did this to me. I believe that it’s through forgiveness
that I’ve been set free.”
God is faithful
to rescue when we call upon him but we must also be willing to do what he asks
us to do. Had Brooke not been obedient
to what God was asking her to do she would not have been set free. We will all face hardships in this life,
there will be tests and trials that we will experience. We are not exempt but we do have a God who
will rescue us when we call upon him and obey what he asks us to do.
King Asa had
seen many moves of God yet at the end of many years of faithful service he made
bad decisions that resulted in the final years of misery. His end could have been very different. Being mad at God only produces greater
problems in our lives. He gets blamed
for many things that are not his fault and people become bitter toward him
because they do not really know him and trust him to be working for their good.
Maybe you are here tonight and you are facing some challenges and really
need to call upon God to rescue you. Maybe
you have responded incorrectly and acted in your flesh to resolve a situation
and you need to seek forgiveness so your relationship can be restored with God
or another person you have offended. Or
perhaps you know someone who is facing a challenge and needs God’s intervention
and you want to stand in the gap for them through your prayers.
One young
girl I want to pray for is one we have met on the streets whose name is Norma. She needs to be rescued. She is 18, pregnant, homeless and both
parents were killed in a car accident.
She needs to be rescued and placed in a loving environment where she can
experience healing and provision for her and her baby. Let’s spend some time praying for ourselves
and others who need God to intervene in their lives.
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